Brighter Than Sunshine
by SeeLJRead
Summary: A Quil and Claire one-shot. Companion to Sweet Sixteen Secrets- The Wedding! I really like how it turned out so I hope you check it out.


I was standing in front of a full-length mirror looking at the reflection of a beautiful woman. She was tall; her hair was curled and pined up artfully on her head and the make-up on her face was light and natural, enhancing her features. The woman was glowing beatifically. Her dress was stark white and straight out of a fairy tale and the veil pinned to her head was flowing down to her waist.

She was a collage graduate, a teacher, a friend, and now a soon to be married woman. Married to her soul mate, the man that fat had created for her. Tall, warm, strong, handsome, kind, and genuinely perfect in everyway. The man who had humored her, going to countless fittings and appointments so she could have the fairy tale wedding he had helped her plan when she was eight and he was keeping an eye on her, over the course of two years filling a giant binder with flowers and dresses and cakes. He had convinced her to go through with a big wedding because he knew despite her protests to the contrary, that this is what she wanted.

I could think of this beautiful, lucky woman being myself, all grown up and getting married. I couldn't think about the fact that in less than an hour I would be Mrs. Claire Atera. I couldn't because if I did no matter how diligently Revlon claimed their mascara was waterproof, there would be black tear tracks running down my face.

So I turned from the woman's reflection out the door. I watched as Janie and Ashley, Jared and Kim's little girls, sprinkled flowers down the aisle. I watched as Nessie and Jake, Kim and Jared, and Sam and Emily, walked down the aisle arms linked together. I watched my father turn to me with tears in his eyes, mouthing the words 'I love you.'

And then I looked at what I had been waiting to see since I was thirteen, I looked at Quil, smiling joyfully, smiling joyfully at me. And this was no longer the beautiful woman's wedding, it was _mine_. I saw Quil smiling like he never had before and shifting from leg to leg, to stop himself from running down the aisle to me. I could smell the flowers and I could see the guests, but it was all so vague, I was zeroed in on my goal, my husband. As his face grew closer the smile on my face crumpled slightly and the tears began streaming down my face, nothing in the world could top this.

It wasn't a sad thought it was simply true. This was the happiest moment of my life, so the tears weren't for sadness, they were for the fact that I was creating a memory so perfect, with a man so perfect, and smiling just wasn't cutting it anymore. So as I walked to my smiling husband, just steps away from my marriage, I cried, tears flowing freely.

I distantly recall the minister's words and then it was time for our vows. I was up first and I took a steadying breath and wiped away my tears before I began.

"Quil, some people think that being friends first is a way to make a relationship fail," I took another deep breath, tears still flowing but smiling again, "that it complicates things, and you can't change your mind so drastically about a person. Quil, those people are fools. Being your best friend, knowing all the little things about you that I may not have learned had we had a …conventional start, only made it easier to love you. Maybe the transition wasn't easy, but every complication, every misstep in my life, has brought me here today, and anything that has contributed to how I feel now, can only be a good thing. There will always be a part of my heart that loves you as a best friend but I am _in _love with you Quil, and I will be forever." After I finished I took a deep breath and blinked excess tears from my eyes, only to see there wasn't a dry eye in the house, including Quil.

"Claire I love you, I have loved you since I met you and I will love you for the rest of time. It's so simple compared to how I feel about you but it is the honest truth. So here today, knowing that you might love me back nearly as much as I love you…Claire, I love you _is_ enough."

Soon after the ceremony was completed with a loving, happy, and rather wet kiss between the groom and I.

We made our way over to the ceremony, talking to all the guests and eating. Together we cut the cake. And then it was time for the first dance. Brighter Than Sunshine began to play, Quil and my song since I was about seventeen. As Quil twirled me around I knew that no matter what with Quil I would be essentially happy and in this moment I was completely happy.

Just then Quil leaned down to whisper in my ear, 'I love your name, our surname and I love you Clair Atera."

Okay now I was completely happy.

* * *

...So this is the wedding.

And this is a link to Claire's dress: honeymoons./od/destinationweddingwear/ss/disneydresses6.htm

Please let me know what you think!

Also I am going to finish my current Kim and Jared story and then I have an All Human Bella and Edward story I am kind of messing around with at the moment and then I am planning a Kim and Jared sequel, _but_ after that, or before the KJ seque,l I was thinking of doing a proper Quil and Claire Sequel, I totally picture them as parents winkwink nudgenudge…thoughts?


End file.
